What You Need to Know about Game Monetization with Reward Video Ads

Designing a new mobile game? Whether you have high hopes for it, or you just want to produce something that’s fun and offers a supplemental stream of income, you’ll need to monetize it. Reward video ads have become the best-performing game monetization method, but there are quite a few things you’ll need to know if you want to succeed. We’ll touch on some of the most important topics here.

What Re Reward Video Ads?

Before we dive into the topic, we need to ensure that you understand what reward video ads are, and how they affect game monetization. Simply put, they’re video ads that your players watch in exchange for some sort of reward in the game. It could be anything from in-game cash to extra lives to power-ups, or something else.

Reward Video Ads Cannot Save a Bad Game

When it comes to game design, creating a high-quality game that actually engages your user base is more important than anything else. Reward video ads can’t save a bad game. If your game fails to deliver, your users will realize this, and they’ll jump ship. Quality counts, it’s as simple as that.

Place Ads Where It Makes Sense

One of the most important considerations in game monetization is this – you must place reward video ads where they make the most sense within your game. You cannot just toss them in wherever you feel like. Why? Well, it breaks the gameplay continuum for one thing. It creates an artificial disconnect that will cost you players.

Think about the growing backlash against Facebook’s in-video ads that pop up in the middle of a video being watched by the network. It’s disruptive, and not in a good way. Strategically place your video ads so that they’re present, and so that watching them isn’t something that breaks the game for your players.

Ensure Players Can Opt In

If you require your players to watch a video, then it’s not really a reward video. It’s an ad, plain and simple. Your players should decide that they want to watch the video. It’s about power and control – your players have the ability to decide whether they want to watch the video, and thereby earn the reward, or not. Once the video starts, they shouldn’t be able to close it, but ultimately, the viewing process should begin with them. It should not be forced.

Stand Out

When it comes to game monetization, you need to make sure that the ad stands out from the game. That is, it cannot be too similar, or you risk your players ignoring it. However, it shouldn’t be intrusive. That is, it should not break the gaming experience completely, as we’ve mentioned previously. So, you need to strike the right balance between visibility and intrusiveness. The right mix will ensure that your players want to watch the video, but that their playing experience isn’t negatively impacted by doing so.

Make Sure You’re Offering Valuable Rewards

As a final note on using reward video ads to improve game monetization, make sure that you’re offering rewards that your players actually care about. There’s little point in offering rewards that have little to no value to players because that removes the incentive to watch the video in the first place. You can and should also tie your reward video ads into your in-app purchases. Blurring the lines here can have a lot of benefits for your profitability down the road. With that being said, don’t be deceptive.

Ultimately, reward video ads provide a lot of assistance with game monetization. Combined with quality game design and the right marketing tools, you can achieve success.